DGA awards Nexter contract for CAESAR 6×6 Mark II

The Direction générale de l’armement (DGA), the French defence procurement agency, has awarded Nexter a contract for CAESAR 6X6 Mk II new-generation self-propelled howitzers (SPHs) and the modernisation or replacement of France’s existing CAESARs, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced during a visit to the company’s Roanne plant on 19 February. The agency said on its website on 21 February that the contract would give the French Army the 109 CAESARs foreseen by France’s Loi de Programmation Militaire 2019–2025 military funding programme.

After a four-year development and qualification phase, CAESAR 6X6 Mark II is scheduled to enter production. Nexter said in a press release on 19 February that it would offer the DGA two options in 2024: production of 109 new CAESAR 6X6 Mark IIs or the production of 33 new CAESAR 6X6 Mark IIs and the retrofit of the 76 CAESARs in service with the French Army. Nexter plans to deliver all 109 CAESAR 6X6 Mark IIs to French Army artillery regiments by 2031.